Calendar icon May 23, 2023

14 Bizarre Items Found in Rental Properties | RBP by Second Nature

Disclaimer: We asked for the weirdest, the most bizarre, the most surprising… and property managers delivered. You may want to check over your shoulder before scrolling if you’re in a public coffee shop or you have little ones at home!

Nobody can ever deny that property managers have some great stories. We asked around to find some of the weirdest, craziest, more preposterously bizarre stories of items left behind by residents to be discovered by property managers. We figured these would be weird. We were right.

14 Weird and Strange Things We Found After Move Out

Get ready for bizarre!

A grenade

“A LIVE RPG (rocket propelled grenade). Seriously did not think it was active but called the bomb squad just to be safe. We shut down 10 blocks for an entire day”

RBP>RPG (learn about our Resident Benefits Package)

An entire car

“A 1966 fox body Mustang. Engine and all. Who does that?”

Fun fact: The 2000 comedy film starring Ashton Kutcher titled "Dude, Where's My Car" is actually based on this.

A cannabis farm

“Basement full of beautiful, huge, marijuana plants. Evicted for not paying the rent. They could have paid rent for a long time if they knew how to run their pot growing business 🤣”

Never get high on your own supply

An assassin kit?

“My cleaning lady pulled the stove out and found a secret cabinet behind it. It had an uzi handgun, silencer, bump stock and other attachments. It was super creepy. I had the sheriff's office come get it.”

Yeah that's a mob safe house you got there

Farm life

“A very angry rooster”

You know, I really hate it when I forget my rooster

Snakes!

“Boa constrictor shedded skin under a couch. Where is the snake?!?!”

Hopefully you burned down the house immediately just to be safe

Pool pickles?

“Pickles in the skimmer basket of a pool.”

May not see a weirder one than this as long as olive

Dead cats...

“Dead cats in freezer and also had one that had white powder on everything in the apartment couldn’t see floor due to powder. They left everything they owned. They had Bed bugs. Took forever to get that cleaned. Broke 3 brand new vacuums. Just trying to clean it up after pulling all carpet. Also had a unit that had burnt aluminum foil all over the place from drugs gun shot holes and someone tried to drive through the apartment. So busted brick inside apartment.”

Please park in the driveway, not the kitchen. Thank you for your understanding

All their worldly possessions

“A house full of furniture. No packing at all. Looked like they just left for work. All of the family items were left behind including all the china, crystal, silver, and linens in the DR. Only thing not left was a couple of TV's and a bed. Took a crew of 8 to empty the house in 6 hours and took 8 trips to haul off from the junk service. Amazing!”

"I swear, Bob! This is the last time you are packing the car!"

A placenta

“Defrosted placenta”

No comment

More cats...

“Dead/stuffed cat. We had fun with that one”

Ever move to a new place and get the feeling you're missing something important? This resident did not get that feeling.

...and even more cats

“17 cat urns”

The only thing worse than this would be finding 18 cat urns

Frog hatchery

“I also had an entire pool of frog eggs. They hadn't hatched to tadpoles yet. And if you've never seen them, they look like long strings.” 

Figured we'd find some poles when we put this list together but was not expecting this type.

NSFW

"Dancer pole"

And there it is

Want to see the photos/more from the thread? Click here and join our free private Facebook group for property managers. ”

Do you have one that would have made the list? Email alower@secondnature.com

Keep learning

Six Ways to Make Your Vacancy Stand Out on Zillow

Every property manager wants to minimize days on the market, and a great listing can be a critical component of accomplishing that goal. If you've spent any time looking at real estate listings, whether rentals or not, you've no doubt seen some well-done ones and ones that have five photos, three of which appear to have been taken for the TV show Hoarders. What makes a listing strong? If you're asking this question, you're off to a good start, and you're in the right place. Be thorough but concise Your listing should strike a balance between being thorough and concise, but it’s important to never leave out critical information that could lead to a negative experience down the road. First and foremost are any upfront fees, then things like pet rules, HOA considerations, and other relevancies that you don’t want a prospective resident to learn about later after they’re further into the process. Be concise about these so your property description doesn’t become too long, but be sure to include what a renter needs to know regarding costs in the application and move-in process. Take quality photos Photos are the golden goose when it comes to property listings. Quality, considerate photography will create stronger first impressions from potential renters. Fortunately, getting quality photos isn’t super difficult, it just takes some planning and forethought. You don’t need to stage your property. In fact, many property managers outright recommend against it. Photos of vacant, clean rooms are usually the way to go. They allow prospective renters to view their stuff and their layout in the photos, which can make them feel less like they’re looking at someone else’s home. Vacant rooms also tend to look bigger, and low angles with wide-angle lenses can add to this effect while showing the whole room. Cleanliness is next to godliness. Never post pictures with boxes, garbage around, open toilet seats in the bathroom, or anything that just doesn’t look inviting. Always open blinds and include window views from rooms when possible. You don’t need to hire professionals for these processes, but it can be worth investing in a quality camera to take nice photos. Again, this will be the first impression a renter has of your property. They’re not going to look twice if it looks small and uninviting. Don’t overdo the property description Be thoughtful of what goes into a property description and how you organize it. These things can get long, and if you’re a property manager, you’re keenly aware of the general public’s lack of interest in reading. A short, one-to-two-sentence description of the property will do for an opener, and you can follow that with bulleted lists of the property’s amenities. Lists are easily consumable and where the eyes of the reader will go first if they’ve decided to skim the description instead of reading through it. In addition to the features of the home, be sure to include nearby amenities in the listing. In single-family property management, schools and school districts tend to be important. Beyond that, nearby shopping areas, outdoor spaces and parks, and distance to highway access are things that property managers have found matter to prospective residents. Don’t list the property until it is move-in ready This is an easy one to check off, but making sure a home is fully ready for a resident before it gets listed is an advantageous process for property managers. You may be tempted to list it as fast as possible, but this has risks, and the theoretical shortening of time-to-revenue may end up backfiring if a great resident moves on because the home wasn't ready when they were. Renters aren’t always proactive. They tend to be looking for properties closer to their actual desired move date than maybe they should be. Listing a property before it’s move-in ready is a great way to create a negative experience if a quality resident seeks it out and it’s not ready when they want to move in. Include a floor plan Employing a third party to create floor plan drawings isn’t a super expensive or difficult undertaking, and it’s worth your while. A floor plan helps a renter understand how the house as a whole is set up, how they might use the space, and how their stuff fits in the home. There is inexpensive software that makes this process easy, or if you’re like most property managers and crunched for time, there are third parties available. This goes back to the idea of being thorough and clear in your listing. You don’t need 100 photos of the home, but you want to tell the whole story of the house as concisely as possible. A floor plan can help you do that. Think outside the box Ask yourself how you can make your listing unique. Checking all the boxes that make a quality listing is step one, but once you’re comfortable with that, you can ask yourself how to be a little bit different and stand out in the sea of property listings. While not a property manager, Trent Miller has developed a viral video series that blends content marketing with property listing strategies. He calls it the speed tour, and it is exactly what it sounds like. @trent_miller__ It's Time For Another SPEED TOUR‼️💨 Thank you guys for all the love and support!! More videos coming soon! Looking To Buy Or Sell Real Estate?? DM ME‼️🏡 ~Price Is Estimated Down Payment~ #realestate #homesforsale #RealEstate #HomeForSale #RealtorLife #DreamHome #Property #HouseHunting #NewListing #ForSale #HomeSweetHome #InvestmentProperty #OpenHouse #LuxuryLiving #HomeBuyer #HomeDecor #HouseGoals #BuyersMarket #SellingHomes #Homeownership #RealEstateAgent #speedtour ♬ original sound - trent_miller__ Garcia Property Management adds colorful overlays to the cover photos for their listings. They don't do this for every photo, so they're still following general best practices for their photo sets for each property, but also trying to stand out within the listings thanks to some color.

Calendar icon August 23, 2024

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Three Property Management Companies that are Winning on Social Media

How would you say your social media marketing is performing? As a constantly changing medium beholden to trends that can peak and die in a heartbeat, it can be a tough area to win. Truthfully though, it's underused in the property management space. Content creation for social media doesn't have to be super intense, and it doesn't have to be super polished. It just has to have intent and understanding of who you're marketing to. If you're looking to develop a more robust social media program for your PMC, you're in the right place. Here we break down three companies with three distinct strategies, all of which are unique in the PM space. These companies are crushing it, and learning from their successes can help you develop a strategy that works for you. Home Ladder Home Ladder’s “Chaos and Disorder” video series is a hit and a great example of creativity that can sometimes be lacking in property management marketing. Co-founders Travis Bohling and Brandon Graham are among the most creative content marketers in the property management space. While they may be relatively new to the content side of things (Chaos and Disorder is less than a year old), they've hit the ground running with a unique video series that's both relevant and genuinely entertaining in addition to leaning hard into Facebook reels. Short video content has been trending up in social media marketing since the rise of TikTok, although it's not heavily used in the SFR property management space. Home Ladder has taken this on with sets of short, straight-to-the-point thought-leadership content. The Chaos and Disorder video series is really fun, though. Home Ladder is starting to spearhead a creative approach to content marketing that the industry could really use more of. The idea here is really to engage the inability of self-managers to be effective tenant screeners, and they've told this story with two destructive characters affably named Chaos and Disorder. A constant battle in professional property management is trying to keep ahead of the self-managing landlord as self-management tech expands their capacity. Home Ladder is keyed in on that messaging here as a play to position their professional services as more reliable and thorough, and they've done it in a way that's genuinely entertaining and relatable to anyone who has ever had a bad tenant, which is anyone who has ever managed a property. RL Property Management RL Property Management CEO Peter Lohmann is crushing it on Twitter. Executives being active in the content creation space can be a big win for companies, and RL Property Management’s Peter Lohmann is a prime example. While this is a popular LinkedIn approach, Lohmann is one of very few who has taken ownership of the property management discussion on Twitter. A tougher nut to crack than Facebook and LinkedIn, Lohmann has found success and amassed over 21,000 followers via a content strategy that seamlessly blends an authentic connection to the property management space with expertise Lohmann has acquired over years in the industry. The word relatability gets thrown around a lot when it comes to any kind of content-based marketing, but being relatable isn’t a goal so much as a strategy. The power of relatability is that it establishes trust, a challenging thing to create in many online spaces. If you can establish a familiarity with what affects the people you’re speaking to on a daily basis, that establishes a trust that helps build interest in what you have to say. Lohmann’s 21K follower count didn’t come purely from expository property management tips. There's a relatability to his content that helps create that trust, which adds value to his thought-leadership content. He’s naturally an authentic person and a master communicator, and while the expertise is valuable, that lies downstream of a personal connection to other industry professionals. Property management in a nutshell: Owners with 40 units: "call me if it burns down" Owners with 1 duplex: "why did you pay $45 to cut grass? My guy only charges $30 please call me asap" — Peter Lohmann (@pslohmann) March 11, 2024 When Lohmann does get into thought-leadership content, he's an open book, which also helps establish trust. Lohmann, like many leading property managers, believes that propelling the whole industry forward is more important than holding any kind of trade secrets. He does not shy away from granular details of his company, including sharing the what and why of his entire tech stack. Cheat code for starting & growing a property management business. This is a complete list of our software stack. This is how the magic happens & how we can calmly and effectively manage ~600 units. pic.twitter.com/aTHYAp9MwH — Peter Lohmann (@pslohmann) December 23, 2021 Grace Property Management Marc Cunningham is the YouTube king. Cunningham has been in property management for over 30 years, and his YouTube strategy is arguably the best in the game. The CEO of Grace Property Management is approaching 5,000 YouTube subscribers. Part of the value of Cunningham's channel is that you know exactly what you're going to get when you go there. His content is built with a very consistent format and length. He has over 100 videos, almost all of which are between five and ten minutes long, and address a very specific issue or question in single-family property management. Cunningham's approach is expert-forward, demonstrating that there is more than one way to win in social media and property management marketing. He provides a combination of content that addresses specific questions and issues in the PM space and offers windows into his own operations and the decisions he's made. His channel's most popular videos, often having thousands of views, cover management topics like how to explain a rent increase to a resident and why you should never charge a pet deposit as well as industry trends like average rent trends and predictions for the coming years. Because YouTube content is indexed by Google, Cunningham's strategy is built more around capturing search engine traffic than the above two strategies. It's self-sustaining to a degree now because of the size of Cunningham's following, but YouTube is an excellent way to capture search traffic, something Cunningham has leveraged well.

Calendar icon August 15, 2024

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